“Through the continued accumulation of detailed and reliable knowledge about elementary reactions, we will be in a better position to understand, predict and control many time-dependent macroscopic chemical processes which are important in nature or to human society.” HumansImportantProcessPositionReactionsDependentChemicalsAccumulationHuman Society Author:Yuan T. Lee
“About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; How well they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along.” HumansWellsSufferingPositionMastersWalkingSorrowEatingUnderstoodWindowOpening Author:W. H. Auden
“The practical life of a vast number of people is not, as a matter of fact, worth while at all. It is like an impressive fur coat with no one inside it. One sees many of these coats occupying positions of great responsibility. Hans Andersen's story of the king with no clothes told one bitter and common truth about human nature; but the story of the clothes with no king describes a situation just as common and even more pitiable.” PeopleHumansMatterFactsStoriesCommonNumbersResponsibilitySituationHuman NaturePositionKingsClothesPracticalsBitterRealismCoatsImpressiveFurMatter Of FactGreat ResponsibilityFur CoatsPractical Life Book:Evelyn Underhill: Essential Writings Source: Evelyn Underhill: Essential Writings
“My position as regards the monied interests can be put in a few words. In every civilized society property rights must be carefully safeguarded; ordinarily and in the great majority of cases, human rights and property rights are fundamentally and in the long run, identical; but when it clearly appears that there is a real conflict between them, human rights must have the upper hand; for property belongs to man and not man to property.” MenHumansLongRealHandsRunningPoliticsInterestCasesRightsPositionConflictRegardMajorityPropertyHuman RightsCivilizedLong RunsIdenticalProperty RightsFew WordsCivilized SocietyUpper Hand Author:Theodore Roosevelt
“What a position of transcendent horror must that be, where the perpetrator of a great crime, till then a stranger to positive guilt, finds himself suddenly cut off, and forever, from all human sympathy, isolated from hope, the tenant of a solitary cell, and with a wide, impassable gulf yawning between him and that great brotherhood of which he has ceased to be a part--no longer regarded as a man, but as a monster in the shape of one, from whom Mercy herself turns away, and for whom Pity even has no tears!” MenHumansTurnsForeverCuttingCrimePositionTearsHorrorShapesMercyGuiltStrangerWideMonstersPityCellsBrotherhoodIsolatedSolitaryTranscendentPerpetratorsTenantsYawning Author:Christian Nestell Bovee
“The classical argument for why a supposedly decent and moral creature like Homo sapiens can mistreat and even extirpate other species rests upon an extreme position in a continuum. The Cartesian tradition, formulated explicitly in the seventeenth century, but developed in "folk" and other versions throughout human history no doubt, holds that other animals are little more than unfeeling machines, with only humans enjoying "consciousness," however defined.” HumansLittlesEnjoyAnimalConsciousnessMoralDoubtCenturyPositionCreaturesArgumentTraditionMachinesSpeciesFolksExtremesVersionsDefinedDecentNo DoubtHuman HistoryHomo SapiensContinuumUnfeelingMistreat Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“If you defend a behavior by arguing that people are programmed directly for it, then how do you continue to defend it if your speculation is wrong, for the behavior then becomes unnatural and worthy of condemnation. Better to stick resolutely to a philosophical position on human liberty: what free adults do with each other in their own private lives is their business alone. It need not be vindicated and must not be condemned by genetic speculation.” PeopleIfsNeedsHumansLife IsLibertyPositionBehaviorAdultsPhilosophicalSticksWorthyArguingSpeculationPrivate LifeUnnaturalCondemnationVindicated Book:Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History Source: Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History
“If within the last century art conceived as an autonomous activity has come to be invested with an unprecedented stature - the nearest thing to a sacramental human activity acknowledged by secular society - it is because one of the tasks art has assumed is making forays into and taking up positions on the frontiers of consciousness (often very dangerous to the artist as a person) and reporting back what's there.” IfsHumansPersonsArtLastsArtistConsciousnessCenturyDangerousPositionActivityTasksSecularFrontiersUnprecedentedStatureHuman ActivityAutonomousSecular Society Author:Susan Sontag
“It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians. If they did so, they couldn't be reelected.” IfsHumansWould BeLawSpeakJusticeRightsPositionMembersInternationalCongressHuman RightsIsraelDefenseBalancedPalestinianPalestineSuicidalInternational Law Author:Jimmy Carter